[COLUMN] Time to end Iraq fiasco
DoD photo by Spc. Kieran Cuddihy, U.S. Army
Two U.S. Army soldiers take cover behind a car as they return fire during a small arms engagement in Mosul, Iraq, on Jan. 23, 2008. The soldiers are from the military transition team assigned to 2nd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division and work side-by-side with the Iraqi Army to provide assistance and advice.
More than five years ago, the United States illegally, immorally and unjustly invaded a sovereign nation that posed no direct or imminent threat to the United States. Nor did the invasion advance any American foreign policy objective.
Yet, here we are, more than five years later and with the blood of 4,000 dead Americans on President Bush's hands, and we still do not have a goal or an exit strategy. Not one member of the administration can articulate with any kind of specificity why we are in Iraq and what needs to happen to trigger our withdrawal. When asked, the best answer any war supporter can give is that we cannot withdraw until we have achieved "victory."
What is this elusive "victory"? As I recall, the objective set forth by Bush five years ago was regime change, which was quickly achieved. He then changed the game plan to the holding of free and fair elections. Again, achieved. Now it is "victory." However, victory has been achieved. Saddam Hussein was not only deposed, he was tried, convicted of crimes and executed. The sign of our victory was Saddam dangling from the end of a rope.
Yet, we are still there with no end in sight and 4,000 great Americans dead.
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More Lies From Hillary Clinton
You would think someone who has spent her entire public life lying would be better at it. Why would someone lie about an event that was well-covered in the media? Does she really think the American public is that stupid? Of course she does because it is. Look at all the stupid lies her husband made and he is still believed by way too many Americans.
We don't need another pathological liar in the White House.
[COLUMN] Liberals gunning for your liberties
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Capisci?
There is no question that a gun is a deadly weapon. In fact, a majority of homicides in this country are committed with a firearm, usually a handgun. Conversely, a gun is used in self-defense tens of thousands of times a year and probably more.
However, none of that matters. Why? See the first paragraph. That is the complete text of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ratified in 1791, that amendment specifically protects our God-given natural right to bear arms. It does not create that right; it merely recognizes that the inalienable right exists. It existed long before the creation of the Constitution and will always exist regardless of what the government says.
In addition, despite what some critics have said, the 14th Amendment binds the states to the Second Amendment, as is demonstrated by myriad statements at the time of its passage and an 1871 congressional committee report.
The reason for the Second Amendment is not, as some critics like to claim, so people can keep a musket to go out and shoot the occasional bear or elk or to protect their homes from American Indians. Nor was it a right for the states to protect their militias from federal control.
It was, pure and simple, another check on the power of the government. Or, as Thomas Jefferson once said, "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
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A Return To Global Cooling?
Along with 1970s-style economic woes, the idea of Global Cooling might be returning for all those Chicken Littles who flock to the latest, human-caused wacky doomsday theories. This was in the April edition of Environment & Climate News:
"There has been a global drop in temperature of 0.63° Centigrade in the past 12 months. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ... has announced that January 2008 was below twentieth century temperature averages. ...
"'The lack of warming in recent years is yet another piece of solid evidence that warming for this century is going to be near the low end of projections made by the United Nations ... far below the end-of-the-world forecasts we hear so much of,' [Patrick] Michaels [environmental sciences professor at the University of Virigina and senior fellow at the Cato Institute] said."
At any rate, this is further evidence that the idea of anthropogenic climate change is pure bunk.
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
Swastika-shaped building
(AP Photo/Jay Reeves)
This aerial photograph taken Wednesday, shows the Wesley Acres retirement home in Decatur, Ala. Prompted by complaints from a Jewish activist, the agency that owns the government-funded building is planning to alter its shape to disguise the Nazi symbol.
Are people really so sensitive that we want to complain about how a building looks from the air? The Jew who complain is somewhat of a nut. This is not his first complaint (he complained about a Naval barracks in California with a similar shape) and he claims the U.S. builds these buildings as part of some conspiracy to honor Nazis.
Still, his complaint is going to cost at least $1 million to appease his aesthetic sensitivities. The government tried to fix the symbol in the 1980s when a senator complained but the fixes, as you can see, did little to change the overall shape.
Get over it. You can't tell what it is from the ground and the elderly residents in the building had no idea that the facility had the swastika shape. No harm.
But this is America and the absurd always wins.
[COLUMN] Time to end blue laws
Still, the whole mess was unnecessary and is the perfect example of a federal government out of control.
While Dershowitz's advice to Spitzer was bad, he did make a good point: the Mann Act needs to die along with all laws outlawing prostitution, which is, essentially, a victimless crime.
The Mann Act is a law against transporting someone across state lines to engage in immoral acts. In reality, it is an attempt by the federal government to gain jurisdiction over prostitution laws.
However, neither the federal government nor state or local governments have any right whatsoever to prevent a free man and a free woman from engaging in a business accommodation where one party pays the other party for a service, in this case, sex.
I have been unable to find any article of the U.S. Constitution, or any constitution for that matter, that permits governments to interfere in a private business transaction such as that entered into by Spitzer and 22-year-old Ashley Alexandra Dupré or any other escort from Emperor's Club V.I.P.
The only legitimate function of a legal system is to protect the rights of the individual. In the case of prostitution, there is no victim to protect. By its very nature, prostitution is private and consensual. That alone should make it sacrosanct from government intrusion.
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U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum Dead
(Photo courtesy of U.S. Senate Historical Office)
U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum died this evening at his home near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 90.
While I rarely agreed with his politics, I honor him for his many years of service to his fellow man, fighting for what he believed in and doing it in an honorable way.
HILARIOUS! Take A Break From The News With Some Low-Brow Humor
OK, this has no redeeming social value at all, but I found it amusing so I decided to share. You may have seen it already because it has been very popular.
Watch these two clips in order. And if gutter humor offends you, don't complain to me, just don't watch.
This first clip appeared on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Jan. 31, which happened to be his five-year anniversary show.
A few weeks later, the night of the Oscars, this clip aired on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."
[COLUMN] The FBI's War On America
Public Domain Photo
Sometimes I do not understand Americans. They whine and complain when gasoline prices rise a nickel, yet, when the FBI admits to committing repeated and continual crimes against the American people, you hear nary a whisper.
People, turn the television off and start paying attention. Reality TV is not reality, this is.
FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday admitted, again, to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI in 2006, as it did in 2003, 2004 and 2005, improperly and illegally accessed Americans' personal telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic from private companies.
The abuse stems from the USA Patriot Act. The act permits national security letters, which are administrative subpoenas used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. These letters permit the FBI to force telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records about their customers or subscribers without judicial oversight.
It is essentially a way for the executive branch of the government to do an end run around the checks and balances built into our Constitution and is an overt attack on the liberties of Americans.
Most Americans, especially those who blindly support the administration and really believe that the war on terror is actually a war on terror, continue to defend such governmental abuses with words tyrants love to hear: You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.
Hogwash.
Unfortunately, too many Americans refuse to care about such things until government thugs dressed in black kick in their doors.
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Police Scofflaws In Maryland
Public Domain Photo
Why am I not surprised by this story from The Associated Press?:
Md. police officers ignore speed cameras
I see police officers here in Ohio continually exceeding the speed limit. There is no excuse for this. Ohio law is clear that emergency vehicles are not allowed to speed unless they "are equipped with and displaying at least one flashing, rotating, or oscillating light ... and when the drivers thereof sound audible signals by bell, siren, or exhaust whistle." In English, that means a police officer is not allowed to speed unless he or she is operating lights and sirens.
I am always seeing Lima Police vehicles clearly speeding and Allen County sheriff's deputies also tend to violate the law as well. Additionally, I have on more than one occasion been pulled over by a police officer who was clearly speeding to catch up to me without displaying lights and sirens. Don't dare bring that up in today's environment, though, or you will get hit with resisting arrest or a TASER.
Wicked Witch Wins Ohio
CNN just called Hillary Clinton the winner in Ohio.
Makes me ashamed to be an Ohioan. It boggles the mind why anyone in their right mind could possibly cast an informed vote for that woman.
A sad day in Ohio history, indeed.
Thank Providence, Lima Schools Levy Fails!
Lima schools levy failed 52 percent to 48 percent.
Of course, school officials, instead of obeying the will of the people, will continue putting it on the ballot until it passes.
This is such a flawed system in a what is supposed to be a democratic process.
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